GOP Congressman: Non-White "Sub-Groups" Have Contributed Less to Civilization

During a discussion of the Republican party’s overwhelmingly white leadership on MSNBC, birther congressman Steve King chimed in on Monday to remind everyone that white people are very good (perhaps even better??) compared to “other sub-groups of people.”

“This whole ‘white people’ business does get a little tired,” said King. “I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out where these contributions that have been made by these categories of people that you’re talking about—where did any other sub-group of people contribute more to civilization?”

After other panelists objected to King’s obviously suspect generalization, host Chris Hayes quickly tried to move on, saying, “On cable news, we are not going to resolve the relative strengths of various strands of civilizational prowess.” Which is a shame, really, because it’d be interesting to see where King was going with that.

In June, King told Politico it was “racist” to want people of color on American currency, explaining that President Obama is “trying to identify people by categories, and he’s divided us on the lines of groups.” Since then, it appears King has learned how to do it all by himself.

UPDATE 7:40 P.M.:On Twitter, Chris Hayes said he was “pretty taken aback” by King’s comments and may have made “the wrong call in the moment.”

2. The entire notion of debating which race/civilization/ "sub group" contributed most or is best is as odious as it is preposterous.